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DONNA  GRESCOE


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The following audio recording is from a 1947 nationwide radio broadcast for Ukrainian war refugees, presented by the Mutual Radio Network.



DONNA GRESCOE



Donna Grescoe 1948

November 17, 1948
The violin Donna plays here is a $12;000 Cremona presented to her by the citizens of Winnipeg
Photo credit:  C & S Pictures for the Toronto Star


A highly talented violin virtuoso, Donna Grescoe was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on November 17, 1927, the daughter of Christina Antonina Roscoe (1900-1995) and George Henry Grescoe (1896-1971).  She began playing the violin at five years of age after her parents bought a fiddle from a door-to-door salesman, and studied under the guidance of George Bornoff in Winnipeg.

She gained early renown for her abilities and at age 14 was described as a “genius” by British pianist, composer, and Royal College of Music professor Arthur Benjamin, an adjudicator at the Manitoba Musical Festival.  Three years earlier, as an 11-year-old, Donna won a $5,000 scholarship to the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, receiving instruction from the Russian-trained concert pianist, Leopold Mittman. 

While in New York Donna performed on the Major Bowes Amateur Hour, American radio’s most popular talent show, and at the Ukrainian American Festival, part of the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

In the fall of 1943, more than one year after a benefit concert organized by the publishers of the Winnipeg Evening Tribune financed the creation of the Donna Grescoe Educational Trust Fund, Donna resumed her studies in New York City.  This time she spent four years (1943-1947) studying with violinist Mischel Piastro, a prominent concertmaster of the NBC Symphony Orchestra.

Donna Grescoe toured across North America making headlines in prestigious shows, theatres, hotels, and night clubs.  Her professional career as a concert violinist was launched on October 1, 1946 before a sold-out house of 4,500 at the Winnipeg Civic Auditorium.  Her New York City debut at Town Hall on February 3, 1947 was attended by representatives of Winnipeg’s political and business elite.  A year later, on January 30, 1948, Donna performed at Carnegie Hall.

She would go on a concert tour of Canada in 1948-49, and during her early career performed with renowned groups such as the Toronto and Montreal Symphony Orchestras.  Despite her early success, however, she received few opportunities to perform on stage in concert.  Refusing to remain idle, in 1953 she began to perform at nightclubs.

Donna would later play at the Canadian National Exhibition and on television, including "Toast of the Town" hosted by Ed Sullivan in 1955.  She married Bjorn Guillichsen later that same year and gave her last solo performance in 1959.

After her concert career, Donna returned to Winnipeg and performed with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra from 1974-1979.  She was a founding member of the Manitoba Conservatory of Music & Arts and became one of its teachers.  Donna commissioned fourteen classical musical compositions.  In 1988, she retired from teaching and married again, this time to cellist Charles Dojack.

Her classical music composition “The Flight of Aphrodite” has been incorporated into the ballet “Cinderella: Frozen in Time.”  Canadian writer Lyn Cook recounts Grescoe's childhood in Winnipeg in her 1951 book “The Little Magic Fiddler.”

Donna Grescoe died in Richmond, British Columbia on August 17, 2012.

Compiled from the following sources:

Donna Grescoe

March 1, 1963
Photo credit:  Edwin Feeny for the Toronto Star

Donna Grescoe at CBS

Donna Grescoe

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